misadventures in lo-fi

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Stratomaster

Stratomaster

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Well my second batch of cakewalk recordings is getting near done, just thought I'd throw up a work mix for some second opinions. I'll wait till I get some real hard critiques before I start making excuses :)--



One of those evil love song things.....
 
Really catchy tune Strat.had me singing "away" right off the bat.Has some cool chord changes there at the bridge.The overall mix might need to be brightened up a little bit......some of the mixing gurus will help you out Im sure.

Good tune.
 
The drums needs most work. They sound boxed, muddy and undefined. I'm not very good at micing drums, so somebodye else will have to tell you how. :)

The guitar sounds seems to "wide" frequency wise, it drowns out most of the rest. I'd try emphasising the mids more on the guitar sound, and especially cutting the lows that now make it sound very gritty. Also, in the chorus, the guitar has the same rhythm as the sing, ie resting when the song rests and playing when the singer sings. That makes the arrangement a bit dull, I'd try to get the song and the guitar to counteract with eachother to make it more interesting.

And the vocals are mixed a tad low.

Good song. Nice vocals.
 
Man...I've never gotten to hear any of your work before. This is really cool. Okay, your comments on my puny mixes mean a lot more to me now. :D

A couple of comments: The overall level seems low. Not a bitch, really, I just have to turn the volume knob up higher than I'm used to doing.

Is that you singing? That's my biggest comment. GREAT vox. All around.

If I HAD to make a critical mix comment, it would be that it seems to be a little light in the lower register (needs more ass)...but I don't trust myself with what I'm listening on yet.

Is there more where this came from?

Excellent so far, man.
-Jamal
 
it sounds like a pretty good mix..........the harmonies are tight.........that bass drum needs a huge makeover......as it stands, that is what's kepping the intro from really exploding.........it sounds way too distant and muffled.......the cardboard box syndrome...........other than that, i agree that it could have a little more bass...........it sounds good man
 
this is a good tune strat, very catchy.. Are you singing? I do hear a bit of a lo-fi type sound, but it seemed to grow on me.. I have been listening to this tune since yesterday.. Some of the extra vocal stuff around 3:15 sounded strange mix wise.. Some songs are hard to critique because you get sucked into the tune itself and ignore the mix problems.. I don't know how to help the problems here because they aren't major, but I'm sure it could sound better.. (crisper)

I really enjoyed this tune because it sucked me right in.. although I hate the ending...



great tune Strato!
 
Great Tune Strato. I think this is the first tune I listened to of yours.

Nice backups. The drums do need some work. Don't really have any suggestions though. Try some alternate mixes, drums a bit more upfront.

Like the vocal melody, wicked.
 
Well....Thanks guys for your listening and your constructive input.


Kramer-A Ga. guy! and a Dawg! Woof woof-close call this weekend ehh? Ya I agree this could use some brightening-actually what you heard is a "push fader" though automated mix-I havent dived into eq much yet-hope I can improve the fidelity a bit.

Regebro-Yes....the drums, this is among my worse drum recordings-the overheads were not only mismatched-but one was small d' condensor and one dynamic :( :( :( As these recordings progressed I got a pair of oktava mc012 overheads, so I hope you'll notice some better drum sounds in a song or two. Thanks for a good honest critique.

Chris Harris-Thank you for listening and the kind words-No I dont sing-I play guitar and bass and I actually wrote most of the words for this one-but all the vocals are done by one guy-we've been working together for 10+ yrs so we work good and fast together-he did a good job i agree.

Powderfinger-Ya the bass drum-I was still in experimental stage when I recorded these drums-everyday we'd try different stuff-I believe the mic was outside the drum this day-not good-We may try to redo the drums completely this week-My mixing of this song really consisted of trying to coverup the drums-the snare and cymbals don't sound too good to me either-thanks!

B.SABB-Good to see you around again-thanks for the listen--I see you noticed the end vocal---that end solo vocal was done as a scratch with a diff mic so yes it does sound a little different. The song will fade out of course. Surprised you didnt mention the E-bow that comes in and pans side to side during the "awaaaaay" sections.

Emeric-Thanks mucho for listening-Your recordings (and a few others) are like watermarks for me. Ive been working pretty hard on drums and I hope you'll lend me an ear as I post up my next few songs-you should notice the drums getting progressively better as I got better mics and experimented with placements. Drums for this were recorded months ago....Glad you like the tune.

Thanks all...
 
A very catchy tune!
The vox are tremendous enough to be out front more :)(hint):)

Nice guitars that blend well. Sometimes the panning is well... almost extreme on some parts but my crappy system probably doesn't do it justice. Everyone else has given great advise on the drums.

The commercial appeal of this tune is huge. In light of this (and the fact that I am always tring to chase the perfect airplay tune) I would suggest dropping the entire intro of instruments and starting the tune with the bare singing the first couple words and smack in with everything on the downbeat. You do something close to this in other parts and it would give it a big frontal punch!

Don't mistake my suggestions as anything more than personal thoughts. You have alot of talent and I look forward to hearing more of your stuff in the future.

jcmm
 
I cant comment much on the mix because I am listening thru crappy headphones as not to wake the wife. I really like the song it brings the 80's back to me, ahhhh...my youth!!! I would only say to brighten up the mix a little especially the drums, but then again, it could just be the phones so...
 
Hey Stratomaster,
I love the song man, very hooky. I think most of your pitfalls have been covered, so i get to be Paula Abdul and tell you the things that i like about it.:D Very creative use of the bg vocals....... very nice, the wide panning on them sounds great. Nice voice on the lead v. Im listening in headphones, and the bass sounds great to me...... solid. I didnt care a bunch for the guit. sound, I guess thats the lo-fi thing you mentioned. What's your guitar chain?

Very nice work bro, ........very nice





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Stratomaster said:
Surprised you didnt mention the E-bow that comes in and pans side to side during the "awaaaaay" sections.
Click to expand...




hey Strat, it was barely audible until you mentioned it.. cool.

I have to tell you that I have listened to this song many, many times in the past few days.. Is that you singing? I really love the tune.. That vocal thing towards the end has even grown on me and I really didn't like that part at first.. I'm sure this tune could 'sound ' better, but the song itself could not be better imhop. Like I said, I have listened to it many times.. I don't normally listen to tunes posted as many times as I listened to this..
 
Very cool tune. The end's a little rough but what the hell. Just my humble opinion but the "lo fi" sound doesn't bother me in the least. The only thing I'd want is maybe a little more "click" out of the kick drum. Very clever chord changes and the vocals are killer. I like it.:cool:
 
Very cool tune....good hook....very catchy...I like it.
Now the mix.....................in a word............muffled. Not just the drums but everything. It sounds like there's veil over everything. I'd bump the EQ up (not too much!) at around 3-4k and also about 8-10k. You'll have to experiment to find exactely where but it'll be worth it because it will give some life and seperation to the instruments. As it is, I had a hard time picking individual instruments out of the mix.
Don't think I'm knocking the tune....I'm not...it's a great song. But it would be awesome if the sound was tweaked 'till it was as good as the song. Very nice tune! ;)
 
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